Crouching Fox, Hidden Dragon
by AnimeClouds
Summary: Kumo had no option left but to kidnap kids from other villages to sustain their ranks.Among them are Jinchuriki and ones with bloodlines. When their former villages all want them back,chaos erupts among the nations.Suddenly,everyone has their eyes on them
1. Prologue

**Hey guys! Sorry if this is late...I'm not sure if it was...anyways this is my replacement fic for TLD (Twins of Light and Darkness) I will continue TLD and X-factors and this one as well. The new X-Factors chappie should come out later this week. As for this one, I didn't really know where I was headed with one cause I had alot of good ideas so I had it all over the place for a little while. But finally! I narrowed everything down and this is the result. So please enjoy! (BTW let me know if you prefer the current title or Operation: Potential thx!)**

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Four years ago in Kumogakure

_"Raikage-sama, our genin report," a chuunin teacher at the Academy handed him the file containing the papers. The Sandaime Raikage frowned at the report, he did not like what he saw._

_Kumo was failing, their number of genin that could potentially become Jounin, Chuunin and Hunter Nin was falling. They had the largest amount of Jounin and Hunter Nin in all of the Elemental Countries but their future was at. Most of the genin would probably die on some lame C or B rank mission. While they had many genin and other shinobi with potential, it was not enough. They needed powerful genin, ones with utmost potential, ones with kekkai genkai, ones with special abilities, perhaps even Jinchuuriki. His daughter Yuugito was a Jinchuuriki and a few other Jinchuuriki for her to play and train with was not a bad idea. If they didn't have any genin soon, then well...Kumo was going to become in heavy debt to other Hidden Village's, not something anybody wanted._

_"We need to think of something... You said Pein wanted to see me?," the Chuunin nodded, "Send him in please," Raikage sighed and rubbed his temples. The Chuunin bowed and retreated out of the room. This matter was giving him grey hair. Pein was his brother, and the leader of Ame. While he had not inheirted the Rinnegan, he had risen through the ranks to Raikage. Ame and Iwa was closely interlinked, highly dependent on each other, if Iwa was to fall, Ame would go down with it._

_"What's giving my genius big brother a headache Kinsen-nii-san?" Pein entered the office and took a seat in the chair across from Kinsen. The Akatsuki was formed recently, and Pein was already recruiting members. He had his eye on Iwa's genius, Deidara. So far the Akatsuki consisted of himself, and his childhood friends, Konan and Nagato, both of them out on missions to look for potential new members._

_"Kumo is failing otouto, we are running out of genin that will be able to pass the Chuunin Exams. We need a group of genin that will be able to reach Chuunin and beyond. They will lead the village's future. " Kinsen explained, he passed Pein the report on the genin levels._

_There was a pause as Pein scanned the report briefly, "That's simple, if we don't have the genin, then surely other Hidden Villages must. All we need to do is to kidnap them from the villages." Pein tossed the report back on the desk carelessly._

_"That just might work...If you can, I would prefer them to be as young as possible, perhaps even little babies, it will be so much easier for us to teach them if they have as little attachment to their former village as possible. And this might be a little too much, but could we get Kekkai Genkai kids or Jinchuuriki?" Kinsen winced a little at the size of his request, it wasn't impossible to pull of but it would be pretty darn hard._

_Pein thought about it for a moment before speaking, "I'll pull up a list of possible candidates for you and figure out how to pull it off, but-" Kinsen sighed, here was the part where Pein wanted something in return. "I want you to get the missing-nin prodigy Deidara to join the Akatsuki._

_"That's it?" Kinsen asked in disbelief, "All you want is Deidara?" there was a nod. "You can have Deidara if you want, just get the list done,"_

_"Done deal, I'll have Operation: Potential ready soon," Pein smirked and walked out of the office, he would be back in a couple of days, everything already figured out. He wasn't only helping Iwa, he was helping Ame and himself to a bunch of extremely talented younglings._

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_It took a good month of planning but finally it was done, Operation: Potential was a go. All of Kumo was briefed on this via a ceremony and was fully prepared. They were first going to kidnap Hinta Hyuuga, the Hyuuga heir. By using the mayhem over at the Hyuuga compound as a cover, other Kumo nins would sneak in and kidnap their targets. And just in case that the incident over at the Hyuuga compound was not enough, Pein had a spy/man inside Konoha, Uchiha Itachi. He was already ordered to murder his entire clan by the Sandaime due to the coup d'etat that the Uchiha had planned out. Every Uchiha would be killed by him except his brother and himself. Then he join the Kumo nins on their run back to Kumo. Other Kumo nins would be in other Hidden Villages, kidnapping other candidates from other Villages._

_"Head out! Operation: Potential is a go!" Kinsen shouted at the assembled Jounin and Hunter-nin assembled in front of him. With that, all of them became blurs and leapt out of the Village. 'The future of the Village depends on those kids, bring them back safely,' once he could no longer sense any one of his men's chakra signatures, he turned and returned to his office._

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_A week later in Konoha..._

_Once the signal was given through comlinks, Konoha was in chaos within a matter of seconds, Hinata Hyuuga, the Hyuuga heir was kidnapped. Inuzuka's were trying to track down the missing heir with no avail. There was just too much going on. Someone had set the Nara Compound on fire and nin's were rushing about frantically trying to put out the fire. There was a blur as the young Uchiha Itachi carrying a bundle rushed by, headed towards the gates. Many assumed he was summoned there to make sure no enemy got out but nobody knew what the bundle was. Well that was what they assumed...until a scream resounded from the direction of the Uchiha Compound._

_"They're dead! They're all dead! The Uchiha's!" the cry rose up, a dozen or so medics and ANBU were dispatched to the Uchiha Compound to sort things out over there. Another dozen were sent in the direction of the main gates to block of the escape of the killer._

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_Hayaku Fushidara was a Kumo Jounin, very well known for his speed. His job was to kidnap three special someones, all heavily guarded. All three of them were reportedly Jinchuuriki although one's demon was a kept a very well hidden secret until Pein-sama found out. Now when a quick Katon Jutsu lit the Nara Compound on fire, courtesy of one of his team mates, it was all he needed to dash into the compound faster than any shinobi's eye could follow._

_According to the blueprints of the compoud, the three special kiddies would be in the room...to his right. Inside was a woman and four cribs, each one carrying a kid but only three of them special. Seeing that the woman was already picking up one of the kids, he cast a quick genjutsu that would allow him to sneak in unseen. Cautiously, he took a step inside the room, checking to see that his genjutsu was working properly. She was probably a civilian, unable to detect the genjutsu. Grinning at his luck, he quickly checked the cribs, sure enough, there was two blondes in two of the cribs. Now the third one was a little bit difficult, the kid the woman was holding looked pretty much the same as the one in the crib._

_Frowning, he gently pried open the one he held's mouth, nope , no teeth or fangs for that matter. He did the same to the other kid...fangs, four of them already, he had found the one he wanted. Hearing voices and footsteps coming, he quickly wrapped them in a blanket, tied them to his back and bolted towards the west gate through the window, the one where all the sucessful Kumo nin were supposed to meet. A few other blurs heading in the same general direction told him that his team mates had seen him escaping with the bundle and now all of them were clearing the area._

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_Kinsen nodded as names of the kids were checked off as Jounin brought each of them in. There was roughly around eleven in total and now each of them lay in their own little cribs in the same hospital room, having endured a rough ride back from Konoha. Although Itachi refused to leave his little brother alone, so he sat in the chair by Sasuke's crib, already asleep. His men were all exhausted, having pushed themselves to the limit to get the eleven kids back to Kumo within half a day. All of them were assigned a good week's worth of vacation and resting time. _

_Smiling, he walked down the aisle between the cribs, tucking in each one as if they were his own children. When he reached the two blondes, the most prized out of the eleven, the Namikaze twins. It was rumored that only people of Namikaze blood could preform the Hirashin. And although all the Elemental Countries had a copy of the instructions of the Hirashin, nobody had ever suceeded other than Minato himself. _

_As he was tucking Sora, the older one of the two in, he noticed a seal on the kid's right arm. It looked extremely complicated and somewhat like a summoning seal mixed with a storage seal. Frowning, he pumped a little bit of chakra into the seal, careful not to hurt the kid. With a poof, Sora vanished and there was a dull blue flash from Naruto's crib. Kinsen rushed over, slightly worried and fasinated at the same time. There was the same seal on Naruto except now there was a fox over top of the seal, as if it meant that the seal was holding something. Curious he pumped the same amount of chakra into the seal as well and watched as the seal greedily absorbed it. _

_The same blue flash appeared in Sora's crib and poof! There he was again, sleeping contentedly, as if nothing ever happened. Shaking his head, he made a mental note to file this bit of info away and test the seal when the two were older._

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Four years after Operation: Potential...

Kinsen watched fondly as his daughter Yugito ran off to play with her friends. The eleven kids was the spirit and life of Kumo, everywhere they went, they brought smiles to people's faces. It was as if the failing Kumo had revived just by the arrival of the eleven. Konoha had suspected Kumo for being held responsible of he kidnaps and finally had proven it. Right now he was fending Konoha off by saying that breaking the truth to the kids would permanently damage their mental and emotional wellness and they should stay in Kumo for their well-being. When they were old enough, they would be sent back to Konoha for a trial run and then they would choose where they wanted to stay.

But right now this wasn't important, all that mattered was for these kids to have fun before they grew up into the harsh way of the shinobi. Pein was recruiting other Jinchuuriki who was older and had more experience with their demon's to teach the kids. There was Kinsen's brother, Kira, host of the Hachibi who had immeadietly stepped up to the plate. He had also become quite fond of the kids, who had treated him as an uncle to them.

The cry of 'cheater' roused Kinsen from his thoughts and he found Yugito chasing Naruto around with a furious look on her face. With a sigh, Kinsen made his way over to the two to break them up...ah the sweet life of fatherhood...

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**And there you go, that was a mighty big prologue but I hope you all enjoyed it nevertheless. So please, please please with sugar and cherries on top R&R! The more reviews, the longer the chapters! ~AnimeClouds~**


	2. Meeting the Bijuu

**Hey guys, sorry about the late update. I was on a road trip for most of the week and I couldn't get the time to type this up. And to make up for it, I'll share a favorite quote with you, "Hate is just a special kind of love you give to people who suck," :DIt's another long chapter yes I know but that's good I guess. I decided it was time to let everyone out there reading my fanfic know who exactly was kidnapped...sorta. Only the Jinchuuriki are shown in this chapter, the rest will be introduced at a later chapter. X-Factors will be up later or late because I've had a hard week. But other than that: ENJOY THE CHAPTER!**

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Kinsen looked around at the eight young Jinchuuriki standing on extremely complex seals. By now, he thought that they would be old and mature enough...well old enough, definetly not mature at all, he sighed as Naruto and Yugito began fighting again. It was time to let them to face the music...the Bijuu's that they carried since birth. Around them were numbers, from one to nine. There were two nines and four and eight were left unstood upon. On number one was Gaara no Subaku from Suna. Pein had a spy inside Suna who easily kidnapped all three of the Subaku children in the middle of the night. By the time Suna had realized that the Hokage's children were missing it was too late, the Subaku siblings were long gone.

On number two was his daughter, Yugito. She was currently arguing with Naruto about something stupid as per usual. Presumably about something completely useless and irrevlevant. He Her dominant personality always clashed with Naruto's stubborn personality and lead to verbal and often physical fights.

On number three was Haku, a quiet and docile girl from Kiri. She had a Kekkai Genkai and the Sanbi which was an added bonus. Her icy cold demeanor sometimes was broken by a small and barely noticable courtesy of something stupid that someone did, and that was pretty often.

Number Four was left empty and number five was occupied by a pale boy with similar pale hair by the name of Kimimaro. He had no eyebrows but had two dots sort of in place of his eyebrows. He also had a Kekkai Genkai that was near extinct as well as the Bijuu Gobi. He was constantly calm and more...sensible than the rest of them.

Number six was Ranmaru and his bloodline wasn't really identified. The Rokubi container was smaller than most of the other kids and was soft spoken. He was very quiet and was often simply sitting around staring of into the distance all by himself simply thinking.

Number seven was the other child from Konoha in the Nara Compound. His dark brown hair was up in a- that's right up in a familiar pineapple. He was lazy and constantly asleep, prefering to do everything the easy and simple way. Not much of a talker, he was often found with Ranmaru sitting under the shade of some tree silently simply sleeping.

Number eight was left blank because Kira had the Hachibi and he said there was no need for him to join in such a thing. Then on the first number nine was Naruto, yelling halfway across the room at Yugito. He was a hyper active knuckle head who always leapt into situations without thinking. His first primal instinct was always to prank someone regardless if he knew them or not.

The second number nine was occupied by Sora. He sat there patiently, calmly observing the scene before him in his own way. Sora was the smarter twin out of the two, constantly having to pull Naruto out of sticky situations. He had a way with words, often able to manipulate others to do his bidding. The other factor was that he was blind, his eyes covered by bandages that rarely came off. Only certain people knew or even remembered what colour his eyes were.

Once Kinsen made sure that everything was ready he hushed the eight children with a sharp whistle. Then he bent over and began pumping chakra into the complex seal on the ground.

There were several flashes of light and standing before them were the Bijuu, every single one of them looking slightly surprised and more irratated than anything else.**"Who the heck called me out here? And all the other Bijuu too!" **Shukaku roared, he was in the middle of sleeping when he was so rudely woken up by being transported out into the real world.

**"Quiet Shukaku, we haven't seen each other for centuries and it hasn't even been a minute and I'm already tired of you!" **one of thetwo foxes snarled, his voice dripping with malice. The fox who was talking was a bright red while the other one was a blue.

**"Yeah Shukaku shut up for once in your life!" **Nibi put in her two cents from beside Shukaku, her two tails lashing about menacingly.

**"Ahem..I believe we have guests..." **Sanbi said in a monotone voice, one of his three tentacles pointing at the humans below them.

**"Our containers huh? I guess it is time," **Shichibi ruffled his feathers and looked at the rest of the Bijuu sternly. He was a giant hawk, a foot or two taller than Shukaku and he could be pretty darn intimidating.

"What the heck is going on here? Who are all these gigantic creatures?" Naruto yelled out suddenly, he was confused to a point beyond confusion.

"Those giant creatures you idiot, are the Bijuu. Demons with such great power that no shinobi can stand up to them, the only way to defeat them is to seal them away in other humans. That's us you moron," Yugito rolled her eyes, she knew about how she held Nibi and all the other Bijuu a long time ago from her uncle Kira and her dad.

**"Hmph, Nibi you're lucky, your container has a brain at least, I think my container has grass for a brain," **the blue fox pointed one of his tails at the ever so silent Sora.

"If I have grass for a brain, then you must not have a brain," Sora replied without missing a beat. The blue fox bent down and stared Sora straight in the eyes, well bandaged eyes. Sora simply stood there unflinchingly until the fox returned back to it's full height.

**"Not bad, you have a spine and a brain, and a sharp one at that too," **the fox grinned down at him fiendishly, **"My name's Toukai and the other fox which just so happens to be my brother is Gekido,"**

"My name is Sora and the moron over there is Naruto," Sora nodded in the other blonde's direction.

**"Enough with this, we have to get back on track," **Rokubi growled, out of all the Bijuu's he seemed most...human-like because he was a monkey. He sat crosslegged on the ground his six tails curled around him. His hands were folded neatly and set upon his knees but you could tell he was getting impatient.

**"Right, let me see...oh right the inheirtance from the Shinigami," **Gekido mused aloud and settling comfortably on the floor. **"Alright brats listen up, I'm only going to say this once and once only." **the room fell silent as all the young Jinchuuriki's attention was focused on the red nine tailed fox.

Once he knew he had all their attention, he resumed speaking again, **"Shinigami means death god no?" **there were several nods all around, **"But it is merely a title for a group of people who help poor unfortunate souls find their way home. The same people also preformed the sealing that binds us to you guys."** Gekido let the new information sink in.

**"The thing is, in order to make sure you guys wouldn't draw on too much of our chakra and go berserk , they left behind something to keep the chakra in check. Naturally, this can be over-ridden but we won't go that far quite yet." **Gekido reassured Ranmaru who's eyes had widened in fear.

"What is this inheirtance you speak of?" Sora spoke up from his spot on the nine. The talk about the Shinigami and inheirtance had grabbed his attention. He was curious to find out what inheirtance could be so important.

**"Simple, it's the weapons called Zanpakuto that the Shinigami use to help souls find their way back, destroy evil souls that eat other souls aka. hollows and so on. Each zanpakuto has a name and 3 stages, the sealed form, shikai and bankai. We'll get to those later. But now the time has come for you to recieve your inheirtance," **Gekido stopped talking as each Bijuu released a short quick burst of demonic chakra. There was a white flash of light and cloaked in the Bijuu's chakra were swords.

The chakra brought the swords down to their respectful owners and the dissapeared, leaving the swords sitting on the floor. Each sword was different from the next and seemed to have their own life, resonating a chakra like energy in occasional pulses.

**"These are copies of the Zanpakuto that the Shinigami that sealed us into you owned. They are just as strong as the original and are basically the exact same. Eventually, later on, you'll get your own Zanpakuto's, unique to you and you only. Then it will only be up to you to unlock it's shikai and bankai form." **Gekido took in a deep breath and stretched tiredly, he was fading slowly. The red of his fur not as bright, his fangs and claws not as sharp. Even his glare didn't seem as scary as before.

Kinsen spoke up from where he remained pushing chakra into the seal, "The seal's effect is wearing off, the Bijuu will have to return to the mindscape. Visit them later when you have the time," the last few words for gasped, he seemed a little worn out from pumping enough chakra into the seal to keep all the Bijuu out and solid in the real world for a bit.

As one, all the Bijuu stood up wearily, each one of them already fading from sight. You could barely see some parts of them, only the faint outline told you where they were. They took a minute to enjoy the last few moments in the real world for a long time. Then with a small smile and a nod they each began dissapearing one by one. Shukaku was the first to vanish followed by Nibi and so on. At last only Toukai remained.

**"I'll see you soon brat,"** Toukai grinned fiendishly at Sora before vanishing completely from sight. The room fell silent, so quiet that you could even hear a pin drop. It took a couple minutes for what the heck just happened to sink in. The sight of their zanpakuto's seemed to bring them back to reality.

"All right you guys, off you go and be careful with those swords other wise..." Kinsen let the threat hang in the air. Each one of them nodded before crowding out the door to show their friends what they just got.

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**There you guys go! Make sure you review! The more reviews, the longer the chapter. The pairings are sorta undecided so if you want to see a pairing happen in this story suggest it in a review! Thanks for reading and tune in next time for the next chapter! ~AnimeClouds~**


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